Stirling
From Old English, literally "place of the stirrings/commotion".
Name Census estimates that about 748 living Americans carry the first name Stirling. It is a predominantly male name (91.4% of registrations). The average person named Stirling today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Stirling births was 2017 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Stirling. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Stirling with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
748
~ 1 in 458,228 Americans
Peak year
2017
27 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,118
Tracked since 1912
Census
Stirling in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 736 people with the first name Stirling, which placed it at #15,588 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#15,588
National first-name rank
People counted
736
736 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Stirling
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stirling is White at 78.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.9%) and Two or More Races (6.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Stirling described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Stirling at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.0% · 574
- Black or African American6.9% · 51
- Two or more races6.3% · 46
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 40
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Stirling
Stirling leans heavily male at 91.4% of total registrations, but 78 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Stirling as a male name
- Ranked #6,118 in 2024
- 15 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (24 births)
Stirling as a female name
- Ranked #10,154 in 2024
- 10 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1996 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Stirling leans strongly male. 609 people counted with this name were male (82.0%), compared with 134 female bearers (18.0%).
Popularity
Stirling: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Stirling from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 188 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Stirling remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Stirling by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Stirling during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Stirlings live
Origin
Meaning and history of Stirling
The name Stirling has its roots in the Old English language and is derived from the words "styrian" meaning "to stir" or "to move about," and "ling," a suffix denoting a person or thing. The name is believed to have originated in the Anglo-Saxon period, which lasted from the 5th to the 11th century AD.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Stirling can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings and wealth in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name is mentioned as a place name, referring to the town of Stirling in Scotland, which was likely named after an individual with the name Stirling.
In the 12th century, the name Stirling appears in historical records as a surname. The earliest known bearer of the name Stirling as a given name was Sir William Stirling, a Scottish knight who lived in the late 13th century and fought in the Wars of Scottish Independence against the English.
Another notable figure with the name Stirling was Archibald Stirling, a Scottish mathematician and inventor who lived from 1694 to 1786. He is best known for his contribution to the development of the Stirling engine, a heat engine that operates by cyclic compression and expansion of air or other gases.
In the literary world, the name Stirling is associated with the Scottish writer Stirling Graham (1909-1986), who wrote several novels and short stories set in his native Scotland. His works often explored themes of rural life and the experiences of the working class.
Moving to the 20th century, Stirling Moss (1929-2020) was a renowned British racing driver who competed in Formula One from 1951 to 1961. He was considered one of the greatest drivers of his era and was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.
Another notable figure with the name Stirling was Stirling Silliphant (1918-1996), an American screenwriter and producer who wrote for several popular television series, including "Route 66" and "The Naked City." He won two Emmy Awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the film "In the Heat of the Night."
People
Stirling + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Stirling as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Stirling: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Stirling?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 748 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Stirling going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 458,228 US residents.
Is Stirling a common name?
We classify Stirling as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 906 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Stirling most popular?
The single biggest year for Stirling was 2017, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Stirling is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Stirling in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 736 people with the name Stirling, or 0.24 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,588 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Stirling in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Stirling?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Stirling leans strongly male. 609 people counted with this name were male (82.0%), compared with 134 female bearers (18.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Stirling?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stirling is White at 78.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.9%) and Two or More Races (6.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Stirling most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Stirling in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.0% (574 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Stirling in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Stirling a male name?
Yes, 91.4% of people registered as Stirling in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Stirling still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Stirling in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Stirling can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Stirling?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.